


Absence

by orphan_account



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 01:57:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10777050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Magneto sometimes creeps everyone out. Well, of course, he is Magneto, but...The young recruit of the Brotherhood feels a chill in her bones when she sees Magneto extracting blood from the human, through the skin.It's not the first time she's seen him doing it, but this time he looks at the blood that fluctuates on the air, and there is some odd, faraway look in his eyes.What does that mean?She is, of course, smart enough to never dare to voice that question.





	Absence

_Magneto sometimes creeps everyone out. Well, of course, he is Magneto, but..._

_The young recruit of the Brotherhood feels a chill in her bones when she sees Magneto extracting blood from the human, through the skin._

_It's not the first time she's seen him doing it, but this time he looks at the blood that fluctuates on the air, and there is some odd, faraway look in his eyes._

_What does that mean?_

_She is, of course, smart enough to never dare to voice that question._  


×××

When Charles falls, Erik rushes to his side.

Metallokinesis.

It means Erik can feel the blood — it is flowing out of Charles, — some of it falls and mixes up with the grains of sand. Some of it just paint the yellow suit in unforigivable crimson.

Hemoglobin. It has an atom of iron on its center... the small particles feel so wrong, out of place.

He hears people shouting — Raven, maybe, or the human... — but he ignores it, he tunes out everything that isn't Charles. His eyes, his breaths, his warmth...

God.

Charles is gasping, his hands frantically clawing at his neck, trying in vain to stop the bleeding.

His hands are covered in blood.

Erik has seen that much blood out of bodies before, and he knows what is the fate...

Suddenly all the others fall on the floor, insensate, and they, too, are clawing at their necks... they are... feeling what Charles is feeling.

Erik swallows and reaches with his powers, trying to command the blood to stay inside veins and arteries...

It doesn't work. Yes, Erik can feel the molecules, but they are too small to grasp, to control. Maybe — maybe if he'd trained it before...

Moments pass, and Charles' movements become less frantic, less urgent. He blinks and Erik can see tears rolling down, mixing with blood and sand.

The others have stopped to mimic Charles, and there is a meaning in that, one that Erik wants to refuse but can't avoid understanding.

Charles looks calmer, yes, because he is out of breath, of energy, of life. He looks at Erik with many different emotions leaking from his eyes... he tries to raise his hand, and it takes some moments for Erik to understand what he is trying to do.

Erik lifts the helmet off his head and tosses it aside.

 _Thank you, my friend_. Charles says inside his mind. _Tell Raven that I am sorry... and..._

It is visible that Charles is making an herculean effort to communicate telepathically — what should be easy, natural as breathing...

_Please, don—_

And, suddenly, just like a flame being extinguished, Charles' presence is gone from Erik's mind.

Forever. He knows it.

×××

Moira MacTaggert dies some minutes later.

×××

Sometimes Erik entertains what is it that Charles was going to ask.

Don't kill the human? Perhaps. Charles certainly would have gravely censored that.

But Erik doesn't think Charles would be focused in only one point, no. The telepath thought ahead, on the future.

He probably wanted to ask Erik to avoid exactly the path he'd made.

Charles wouldn't have liked the violence, he would have despised the blood on his friend's hands, and the way that same friend groomed his sister into a merciless killer.

But...

There is a very important point in all of that: Charles isn't there to censor and argue and stop Erik Lehnsherr.

So, it does not matter.


End file.
